Controversial legislation allowing the creation of Australia's first national storage facility for low-level and intermediate level nuclear waste has been passed in the House of Representatives.

 

The site most likely to be used to the radioactive waste dump is Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

 

Santilla Chingaipe reports,

 

The Gillard government is moving to repeal Howard government legislation that forced a nuclear waste dump on the Territory.

 

In its place would be a new law that opponents say has the same result.

 

However, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says Australians must accept responsibility for disposal of the nuclear waste created by medical and other technologies.

 

"Accepting the benefit of these technologies means that we are all responsible for finding a safe location based on science to store Australia's nuclear waste. As a community, we have failed miserably in this endeavour since 1988."

 

But not everyone agrees.

 

Kylie Sambo is a young Muckaty woman who, as a musician, has become a vocal opponent of a radioactive waste facility on her people's land.

 

She says the Minister doesn't understand the significance of the area to her people.

 

"That land means a lot to most of our ancestors and to our people. I would like to keep it for the future. For my children, for his children, her children, instead of this waste dump. It's going to be there forever if they are going to put it, but it's only going to kill the land."

 

Dave Sweeney is from the Australian Conservation Foundation.

 

He is also opposed to the creation of a nuclear dump at Muckaty Station.

 

Dave Sweeney claims the Minister did not consult many of the owners of Muckaty Station opposed to the dump before tabling the legislation.

 

"It's a secretive piece of legislation in that it takes away people's rights. It specifically removes procedural fairness and legal recourse from the people of Muckaty and it really restricts options for people all round Australia to have their say. The other thing which this legislation does -- which is deeply disturbing -- is that it overrides all state and territory laws and regulations that might affect the siting of the dump."

 

Minister Martin Ferguson says under the Northern Territory's Aboriginal Land Rights Act only traditional owners have the right to consent to third party use of Aboriginal land.

 

And Mr Ferguson says the Northern Land Council concluded in 2007 that the traditional owners of Muckaty were the Ngapa clan.

 

He says it was on this basis that the Ngapa people have since given approval for a railway, a gas pipeline and mining projects on Muckaty station - and now for the nuclear dump.

 

"It is inconsistent with the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to suggest that all traditional-land-owning groups on Muckaty Station must give their consent for all decisions about third party use of land on Muckaty Station. Against this background, it would clearly be inappropriate for a minister to treat a group of Indigenous people as traditional owners of a particular piece of land when an independent land council has made a different decision. One might say that it also flies in the face of Indigenous self-determination."

 

Musician Kylie Sambo disagrees.

 

She says most of the residents of Muckaty didn't even know it was a nominated site for a nuclear waste dump.

 

"My family, they weren't told. We found out through the radio. If they did speak to some of them (traditional land owners), then they weren't really sure what it meant. because they haven't had any education and it's very hard for my people to understand English as much."

 

Dave Sweeney says Minister Ferguson does not understand the process of Indigenous land ownership.

 

He says the whole community should have been consulted.

 

"Traditional ownership is always complex, particularly if you're not an Aboriginal person and don't understand the full complexities of that system. What we can see and what is clear is that there is no broad community agreement and consent. What we're seeing this week is Senior Aboriginal people of the region, taking action in the Federal Court to stop the Federal government's plan. They're arguing that they weren't adequately consulted, that they gave no agreement. So there's lots of uncertainty about ownership, consultation and consent."

 

During debate on the new legislation in the House of Representatives, former Minister for Resources in the Howard government Ian Macfarlane ridiculed the Labor Party.

 

He said Labor had gone from opposing the nuclear waste dump proposal in opposition, to promoting it in government.

 

"They worked against establishing a waste repository. It gives me no pleasure to see the hypocrisy that is on show here today by those who sit opposite, who now realise that they could have saved 10 years of time by supporting the government of the day when we first put this forward."

 

Mr Macfarlane said the coalition would support the government bill, because it largely matched what the Howard government had been trying to introduce.

 

And he said something had to be done with the low-level nuclear waste currently being stored at what he described as safe but highly unsuitable sites across Australia.

 

"Where might that be? In shipping containers in car parks of hospitals, in basements of buildings in central CBDs and in hospitals, where state governments, who have abdicated their responsibility in this area, have no option but to maintain the waste in its current position."

 

Despite being passed in the House of Representatives, the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill is likely to still face obstruction from the Australian Greens in the Senate.

 

In a sign of things to come in the Senate, the only Greens Member of the House, Adam Bandt, spoke out against it.

 

Mr Bandt also ridiculed the Labor Party for claiming in opposition that a few individual traditional owners at Muckaty had effectively been bribed to accept the waste dump on their land.

 

And he said the Labor government was now failing to respond to appeals from Indigenous owners for more consultation.

 

"I struggle to find a more brazen example of the disregard that a minister has for parliamentary process, consultative public policy and basic human rights. Labor, led by Minister Martin Ferguson, is putting a nuclear waste dump on the land of Territorians and Indigenous Australians, who do not want it."

 

The Greens have announced plans to introduce a series of amendments in the Upper House, which will including tightening the discretion given to the Resources Minister.

 

In a protest outside the Minister's Melbourne office, however, musician Kylie Sambo had a very simple message.

 

Muckaty Station is her home.

 

"(singing) Don't waste the Territory. This land means a lot to me. Been living here for centuries, this place we call Muckaty. Don't waste the Territory. This land means alot to me. Been living here for centuries, this place we call Muckaty." .